Idolize the Wealthy and Deplore the Poor

This is what the authoritarian followers do. They idolize the wealthy because they view wealth and power as the indicators of success. This is what they want so very badly. It doesn’t matter how the wealth is obtained. They idolize Dick Cheney because he has power and money and are willing to overlook whatever he did.

The authoritarian followers emulate the wealthy and look down on the poor as failures that deserve their fate. They rationalize that the poor don’t deserve help because of their lifestyles and behavior. The poor should just get a job and pull themselves us by their boot straps. And they will throw the code words “personal responsibility” into the argument somewhere.

And these same authoritarian followers will swear they live by the Bible’s teachings. Their brains can’t see the hypocrisy.

I recommend "The Authoritarians" by Bob Altemeyer available free on the internet.

Bravo Pat Buchanan

He does what the others in the ruling class won't do. He is up front with his bigotry. He makes it crystal clear what the others of his kind are too afraid or to wary to admit. Their thinking: White people (meaning rich white people) founded this country. They allowed in minorities for labor purposes only. For example, George W. Bush did nothing to discourage the millions of illegal immigrants from flocking to the U.S. which provided cheap labor for his rich friends. But they look down on us as inferior.

They, the rich white people, still think they OWN the rest of us.

But this is not just a racial issue. This is class warfare. Pat and those like him (the rich, white, ruling class) are absolutely convinced that they are superior to the rest of us, no matter what race, sexual orientation, or gender we are. They feel that their wealth is confirmation from God of their worth.

Wasn't it Barbara Bush that said to those starving in the Astrodome after the Katrina disaster, "Let them eat candy."?

I think this recent exchange between Ms. Maddow and Buchanan is classic. Buchanan, the classic representative of the rich, white, male, ruling class verses Rachel, the epitome of everything they hate (and fear).

Bravo Ms. Maddow, you are my favorite.

Is the Republican Party Just a Distraction Now?

I have been sputtering incoherently for a number of posts on DU lately about who the real enemy is. How the moderate-right republiCons and their K street friends are sneaking into the Big D tent. Well, Sen Arlin Specter hardly snuck.

Christopher Hayes writes a good article about this in “Naming the Enemy” in the June 22, The Nation.

“While the Republican Party shrinks, corporate interests are deftly molting their old K Street Project skin and crawling en masse inside the big tent being pitched by the Democrats.” “the new strategy is to subvert legislation through co-optation, as in healthcare and cap and trade. …corporate lobbies are trying to have it both ways: to block reforms while changing overt power struggles over the future of the economy into seemingly cooperative negotiations.”

I see a number of problems with this:

It will be much harder to tell who the enemy is if everyone is wearing the same uniform.

Battles between progressives and the right will have to be fought in the primaries as in the cases like Lieberman and Lamont and between Sen Specter and Rep Joe Sestak. Who will Rahm Emanuel back and the DLC support?

And Democratic Underground will have to change it’s name to Underground.

Liz Cheney the New Neocon Spokesperson?

The Wiki definition of Neocon (roughly) says that Neocons believe in using economic and military force to “bring” democracy to foreign countries. The Neocons including William Kristol and Dick Cheney influenced our invasion of Iraq and are continuing to promote an invasion of Iran. A chip off the old block, Liz Cheney seems to be following her dad in this mission. In a recent debate when confronted with video of thousands of young Iranians demonstrating for the overthrow (via election) of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Liz responded:

“I don’t think it makes to much of a difference who wins the election in Iran …I think they will continue to pursue the same policies.”*

It is very important to the Neocons to have Iran as an enemy, then we are justified to invade. Liz doesn’t care who is leading Iran, she is sure they will hate us regardless.

*For exact quote see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JteSb2Tbiw8&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.democraticunderground.com%2Fdiscuss%2Fduboard.php%3Faz%3Dshow_topic%26forum%3D385%26topic_id%3D323123&feature=player_embedded

You Are Not Pro-LIfe if You Condone Killing

Here are some bit and pieces from NanceGreggs posted at Democratic Underground:

"If you are arrogant enough to hold that your God, your religion, your church’s doctrine should be foisted on others, whether they adhere to the same doctrine or not, you are laughable in the eyes of whatever god it is you think you worship and revere.

If you decry abortion but cling to capital punishment, unprovoked war, the use of torture, or the justification of death in any form, you are not pro-life in any sense of the word – you are pro-hypocrisy.

The very people who brag about their pro-life position are the same people, more often than not, who get their respective knickers in a twist over things like sex education and the use of contraception. They’re not anti-awareness, they are pro-ignorance – and the consequences of that position be damned.

It has also not escaped my attention, nor that of the people of the world, that while the alleged pro-life crowd talks a good game when it comes to women being forced to birth unwanted children, children born into poverty are dismissed out-of-hand as the offspring of “welfare queens”, and are automatically perceived as undeserving of basic needs – like nutritious meals, an education, and medical care that comes at the expense of tax dollars."

Posted at: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5773558&mesg_id=5773558

See other rants by Nance at http://nancerants.awardspace.com/

I believe that an organization outside the Democratic Party may be needed to save the Party

That is take the party back from the corporatists.

The grass roots of the party do not control the party. Granted the grass roots elected Pres Obama, but he thanked us by dumping Dean in favor of Emanuel. In my opinion the DLC, DCCC, DSCC, and DNC all reek of corporatism.

The Party leaders chose Lieberman over the people’s choice Lamont and now they are backing Specter in lieu of any true Democratic challenger. This demonstrates to me that whoever is running the Democratic Party isn’t interested in grass roots choices, only maintaining the good ole boy corporatist status quo.

Thom Hartman says that we need to get into our local Democratic Party organizations and take over. I am working on that but it looks like a decade project. We haven’t the time. We need to unseat the Dino’s, but I don’t believe we can via the Party organization. Maybe an external organization like Moveon or PDA can raise the money to counter the huge sums offered by the corporations.

The General Motors Scam

General Motors is claiming to have lost hundreds of billions of dollars. This is a fraud. The money they claim to have “lost”:

a. Was invested in profitable foreign auto plants.

b. Was given to executives as part of ridiculous compensations packages.

c. Was lost on gambles in the stock market.

d. Was accounting maneuvers aimed at showing a loss where none existed.

All the while that GM was supposedly losing billions, they continued to pay their execs huge salaries. Hmm. Could it be because the execs were successfully executing the fraud? After all what is the down side for GM losing billions (on paper)? They will get to raid their employees retirement fund and literally steal the employees money. They will get to disregard existing labor contracts. And they will get the American taxpayers to GIVE them hundreds of billions of dollars. And we threw Bernie Madoff in jail.

See more at: http://socialistworker.org/2009/04/20/what-killed-the-auto-industry

This was also posted at DU by Hannah Bell: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5747611